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prefer I ask these questions of your tender little sister instead?"
    That threat had the desired effect; her defiant expression turned desperate. "Why wouldn't he think you're going to attack him? For years, there have been rumors that you're going to do it. Now, you have an excuse! Not that you
need
one." Jennifer cried, frightened past all reason when he began advancing on her again. "You're an animal! You
enjoy
killing innocent people!" When he didn't deny that he enjoyed it, Jenny felt her insides cringe.
    "Now that you know that much," he said in a dangerously soft voice, "suppose you tell me how many men-at-arms your father has?"
    Jenny hastily calculated that there must be at least 500 left. "Two hundred," she said.
    "You stupid, reckless little fool!" Royce hissed, grabbing her arms and giving her a hard shake. "I could break you in half with my bare hands, yet you still lie to me?"
    "What do you expect me to do?" Jenny cried, quaking all over, but still stubborn. "Betray my own father to you?"
    "Before you leave this tent," he promised, "you'll tell me what you know of his plans—willingly or with some help from me you won't enjoy."
    "I don't know how many men he's gathered," Jenny cried helplessly. "It's true," she flung out. "Until yesterday, my father hadn't seen me in two years, and before that he rarely spoke to me!"
    That answer so took Royce by surprise that he stared at her. "Why not?"
    "I—I displeased him," she admitted.
    "I can understand why," he said bluntly, thinking her to be the most unbiddable female he'd ever had the misfortune to encounter. She also, he noticed with a start, had the softest, most inviting mouth he'd ever seen and, very possibly, the bluest eyes.
    "He hasn't spoken to you, or paid the slightest heed to you in years, and yet you still risk your very life to protect him from me?"
    "Yes."
    "Why?"
    There were several, truthful and safer, answers Jenny could have given, but anger and pain were numbing her brain. "Because," she said flatly, "I despise you, and I despise everything you represent."
    Royce stared at her, caught somewhere between fury, amazement, and admiration for her defiant courage. Short of murdering her, which would not give him the answers he sought, he was at a loss as to how to deal with her, and although strangling her held a certain appeal at the moment, it was out of the question. In any case, with Merrick's daughters his captives, it was possible Merrick might surrender without putting up a struggle. "Get out," he said shortly.
    Needing no further urging to leave his hated presence, Jenny turned to flee from the tent, but the flap was down and she stopped.
    "I said, get out!" Royce warned ominously, and she swung around.
    "There's nothing I'd like better, however, I can't very well walk through canvas."
    Wordlessly, he reached out and lifted the flap, then to her surprise he bent low in an insulting mockery of a bow. "Your servant ma'am. If there's anything at all I can do to help make your stay with us more pleasant, I hope you won't hesitate to call it to my attention."
    "Untie my wrists then," Jenny demanded to his utter disbelief.
    "No," Royce snapped. The flap dropped down, smacking her in the backside, and Jenny bolted forward in angry surprise, then let out a stifled scream when an unseen hand shot out and caught her arm, but it was merely one of the dozen guards who were posted just outside the Wolf's tent.
    By the time Jenny returned to their tent, Brenna was ashen with fright at being left alone. "I'm perfectly all right, I promise," Jenny reassured her as she awkwardly lowered herself to the ground.

Chapter Four
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    F ires burned at periodic intervals in the valley where the Wolfs men were still encamped that night. Standing in the open doorway of the tent, her wrists bound behind her, Jenny thoughtfully studied the activity going on all about them. "If we're going to escape, Brenna—" she began.
    "Escape?" her sister repeated,